the neat profits of trade, let the king oblige traders to pay taxes on their saleable commodities.

"As the leech, the suckling calf, and the bee, take their natural food by little and little, thus must a king draw from his dominions an annual revenue.*

"As men versed in cases of tolls, and acquainted with all marketable commodities, shall establish the price of saleable things, let the king take a twentieth part of the profit on sales.

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Any seller or buyer, who fraudulently passes by the toll office at night, or any other improper time, or who makes a false enumeration of the articles bought, shall be fined eight times as much as their value.

"Let the king establish rules for the sale and purchase of all marketable things, having duly considered whence they come, if imported; and if exported, whither they must be sent; how long they have been

Sir Wm. Jones's Works, vol. vii. p. 312.

kept; what may be gained by them; and what has been expended on them.

"At the close of every half month, according to the nature of the commodities, let the king make a regulation for marketprices in the presence of experienced men.

"Let all weights and measures be well ascertained by him; and once in six months let him re-examine them.

"The toll at a ferry is one pana of copper for an empty cart; half a pana, for a man with a load; a quarter, for a beast used in agriculture, or for a woman; and an eighth, for an unloaded man.

"For a long passage, the freight must be proportioned to places and times; but this must be understood of passages up and down rivers: at sea there can be no settled freight.

"Whatever shall be broken in a boat, by the fault of the boatmen, shall be made good by those men collectively, each paying his portion.

"This rule, ordained for such as pass

rivers in boats, relates to the culpable neglect of boatmen on the water: in the case of inevitable accident, there can be no damages recovered.

"The king should order each man of the mercantile class to practise trade, or moneylending."*

From personal taxes of every kind, are exempted the blind, the lame, and all persons who may have attained the age of

seventy years.

In the chapter on judicature and law, there are numerous rules respecting loans, which distinguish the nature of the loan, where there is risk, and cases where a pledge may be required by the lender; and it is observed, that to stipulate for interest beyond the legal rate, and different from the rules prescribed, is unlawful: where there is no risk, the legal interest is declared to be five on the hundred.

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Whatever interest, or price of the risk,

* Sir Wm. Jones's Works, vol. vii. chapter on judicature, &c. p. 395.

shall be settled between the parties, by men well acquainted with sea-voyages, or journeys by land, with times and with places, such interest shall have legal force."*

In the chapter on slander and abusive language, as well as on some other offences, fines proportioned to the degree of injury are ordained, at the same time mentioning the amount to be paid.

Among the offenders subject to punishment, are receivers of bribes, extorters of money by threats, debasers of metals, gamesters, impostors, and professors of palmistry; and the same chapter contains curious instructions for discovering cheats and preventing mischief, by means of spies and officers of police.

When treating of the duties of dif ferent classes, the institutes of Menu enact thus:-"There are seven virtuous means of acquiring property: succession, occupancy or donation, and purchase or exchange, which are allowed to all classes;

* Sir Wm. Jones's Works, vol. vii. p. 356.

conquest, which is peculiar to the military class; lending at interest, husbandry, or commerce, which belong to the mercantile class; and acceptance of presents, by the sacerdotal class, from respectable men.

“Neither a priest nor a military man, though distressed, must receive interest on loans; but each of them, if he please, may pay the small interest permitted by law, on borrowing for some pious use, to the sinful man, who demands it."*

In the Ayeen Akbery there are quotations from Hindu ordinances, relative to loans, charities, and fines, for offences, in which different species of what has been understood to be money, are mentioned by name.

But, after thus stating some of the arguments which may be adduced to support the belief that money, or regular current coin, was in use in India at that very remote period of its history, there are others which oppose it, and among these, a pas

* Sir Wm. Jones's Works, vol. viii. pp. 76 and 77.